When he arrived at the command post, Hide found Elder Moruyama still unconscious. He then slapped him with an agenda book.

Plack! Plack! Plack! Plack!

Two slaps to the right cheek, two others to the left, and in an instant Elder Moruyama woke up. As he swallowed the blood in his mouth, he checked his surroundings and found that he was still in the command post. It was just that his wrists and ankle were tightly bound to his favorite chair.

Meanwhile, in front of him Chief Koji sat with his head laid on the table, motionless without any breathing. His eyes were still wide open, while on his neck there was a wound the size of a pencil, and the few drops of blood that flowed from it had dried and started to turn black.

A deep pain filled Elder Moruyama's gaze. Then, he turned his attention to Hide, who casually looked at him while tapping his finger on the agenda book.

As he pulled the duct tape covering Elder Moruyama's mouth, Hide said, "Good morning."

Elder Moruyama didn't answer right away, but glanced at the gas mask hanging on Hide's left waist. "Clever bastard! Even the smart Koji failed to anticipate it."

"Well, I just imitated bandits in old kung fu movies, punched a hole in a paper window, then blew the dope inside."

"Whatever." Elder Moruyama was not interested in Hide's explanation and asked, "What do you want?"

"Your life, but before that I want to make sure if there are gold bars stored in this villa."

"This villa is just a place to relax, not a hidden house. There is no money, gold, or other valuables here." Elder Moruyama looked at Hide deeply as he continued, "But if you let me go, I can give you a large amount of gold."

Hide slightly smiled, because he knew for sure what he was looking for. In his previous life, he had never attacked Villa Tigera, but he knew of several incidents related to it.

Two years from now, Villa Tigera would be attacked and burned to the ground by Aizen Mafia. From the rubble, police recovered a safe box containing six pieces of 1-kg gold bars and the bodies of two little girls. Police also found dozens of little girl's bodies buried under the Purple Orchid Garden.

Initially, Hide planned to ambush, interrogate, and kill Elder Moruyama. Then, he would sneak to the villa and take the gold bar. However, the situation demanded that he had to combine the plan in a high-risk raid. Fortunately, he had already managed to finish the hardest part.

Without delay, Hide checked Elder Moruyama's pulse, and he smiled broadly when he found the old man was already free from the effect of the anesthetic, and ready to receive the interrogation formula.

"Let's test your honesty."

Hide then took an injection filled with blue liquid from one of his pouches, and injected it into Elder Moruyama's neck. A moment later Elder Moruyama's gaze turned misty.

"Answer my questions honestly. Do you understand?"

"Unders… stand," Elder Moruyama replied softly.

"Good, first question, where do you keep the gold bar in this villa?"

"The wall, behind me... behind the painting."

Without delay, Hide lowered the painting behind Elder Moruyama and found a safe box the size of a car stereo.

"Tell me the PIN?"

"343... 53… 6."

"Is there a trap inside of the safe box?"

"No."

"Good."

Without difficulty Hide opened the safe box. Then, he took out its contents, which consisted of an Elder Moruyama's passport, 5 bundles of 1000 Ren notes, and 10 pieces of 1-kg gold bars each wrapped in a black pouch.

While packing up the booty, Hide said, "Thank you and goodbye, in my previous life you were responsible for my father's death. So, in this life I have to prevent it."

"Okay, goodbye..."

'Well, at least this time you don't scream hysterically like a coward.'

Gently, Hide's left hand pulled Elder Moruyama's forehead backward. At the same time, his right hand pulled out Fairbairn Sykes. Then, he made a slit starting from Elder Moruyama's left ear, down to his throat, and up to his right ear.

Fairbairn Sykes was not a cutting knife with super sharp edges, so Hide must use his strength to the fullest. The incision was also not neat but a wide and rough gaping. Therefore, Hide's right hand was full of Elder Moruyama's blood that flowed like a heavy flood.

After cleaning his right hand and his Fairbairn Sykes using a bottle of mineral water, Hide then copied the contents of Elder Moruyama's smartphone and took a photo of him, who was staring at the ceiling with his mouth and throat wide open.

"Goodbye, old piece of shit," Hide muttered softly.

Then, he just started collecting alcoholic beverages, when Takeo radioed him.

---

In anticipation of radio interception, Sawamura and Chief Koji agreed that situation updates would be sent via text message, at 2000, 2300, 0200, and 0500. While tapping his fingers on the table, Sawamura pensively looked at his smartphone, waiting for the third situation update that should have come in three minutes ago.

'Chief Koji is always on time, something must have happened at the villa.' After taking a deep breath, Sawamura then turned to one of his men.

"Yoshi, call the villa and pretend to be a drunk."

"Roger."

Without delay, Yoshi carried out Sawamura's orders. A moment later, he approached Sawamura while frowning.

"Boss, no one answered."

"Fuck!" Sawamura cursed before getting up and continued. "Let's go to the villa."

"Boss, if they can take over the villa quietly, then they are pros. They may have already left or have prepared a surprise on the road for the reinforcements."

"What's your suggestion?"

"Let me sweep the route to the villa first. You and the convoy followed me one click behind."

"I can't lose you. You are one of the few experienced ex-mils on my team, let the other personnel do it."

"No, they will miss any vital signal and send the convoy into an ambush. Let me do it, I have the experience and skill for the job."

"Fine," replied Sawamura after he saw the determination in Yoshi's gaze.

---

According to most people, waiting was a boring job as hell. But now, Takeo had another opinion. Waiting could also be very stressful as hell.

Six hours had passed since Hide and Shizuka had left him, and even though everything was going well so far, Takeo still couldn't stop hoping for the work to end as soon as possible before anything bad happened. Unfortunately, it looked like his wish didn't come true.

'This is bad.'

Takeo clenched his fists tightly as a car swerved off Highway 11 onto the only road leading to the villa, followed by several others.

Without delay, Takeo pressed the PTT button. "Orange to Apple, do you copy?"

[Loud and Clear, Orange, I'm listening.]

"Be advised, you have incoming traffic."

[How many?]

"One SUV, followed by five SUVs and a sedan one klick behind, and the convoy turned off their lights as soon as they entered the road to the villa."

[Received and understood, have Pear and our VIP arrived?]

"Negative, it's a 1.5 click rough slope with a kid and in the middle of darkness, so it would take a while."

[Once they arrive, leave the RV immediately. Pear knows where to go.]

"How about you?"

[I'll try to kill the incoming traffic in two sweeps.]

"Can't you just finish our target and get back to the RV?"

[I need to give Pear some time to get away. Who knows if they have a long-range night vision device or bring K-9.]

"..."

[Also, it's a pity to leave behind the weapons and equipment Pear had painstakingly gathered.]

[Pear to Apple, for your information, it's not a pity and please put your life as first priority.]

[Apple to Pear, thank you for your concern, but believe me this is the easiest part, so don't worry about it.]

As he listened to the conversation on the radio, Takeo frowned as he saw the Lead SUV suddenly stopped.

"Apple, be advised, the Lead SUV suddenly stopped one click before the villa's front gate."

[Is there any explosion?]

"Negative, why?"

[I put a booby trap in that place, but they seem to have found it.]

"Fuck, what we do now?"

[As I said before, leave RV immediately, and cut all communication with me, Apple is going dark.]

'The fuck,' muttered Takeo as he watched all the villa lights suddenly went out.

*****